1st Edition

Poor Jews An American Awakening

Edited By Naomi Levine Copyright 1974
    217 Pages
    by Routledge

    275 Pages
    by Routledge

    The popular image of the Jewish community is that it consists primarily of members of the middle and upper middle classes. But this image is far from true. Poor Jews: An American Awakening shatters, once and for all, the stereotype of Jewish affluence.

    Citing national data and descriptions of the life-styles of the Jewish poor, the authors reveal unique social characteristics of the Jewish poor—including the surprising statistic that over two-thirds of the members of this group are past the age of sixty, thus experiencing the compounded disadvantage of being poor, elderly, and deserted by the young, mobile Jewish community.

    Reasons for the "invisibility" of Jewish poverty are examined, as well as how the Jewish community has responded to poverty within its own ethnic group and Jewish attitudes toward the welfare state and charity. The lack of Jewish participation in antipoverty programs is cited, along with measures which will bring them fully into this and other federal and state programs.

    Introduction; 1: Poverty Among Jews; 1: The Culture of Poverty; 2: The Invisible Jewish Poor; 3: Jews Without Money, Revisited; 4: The Hasidic Poor in New York City; 2: The Jewish Response to the Jewish Poor; 5: Some Aspects of the Jewish Attitude Toward the Welfare State; 6: Concept of Tzedakah in Contemporary Jewish Life; 7: Our Jewish Poor: How Can They Be Served?; 8: Problems in Serving Chicago’s Jewish Poor; 3: The Jewish Poor and the War Against Poverty; 9: Why Jews Get Less: A Study of Jewish Participation in the Poverty Program; 10: Memorandum of Inspection Division; 11: Re: Jewish Poverty; 4: On Ending Jewish Poverty; 12: The Jewish Hospital and the Jewish Community; 13: A Systematic Approach to Poverty Policy; 14: Postscript: Elder’s Lib

    Biography

    Naomi Levine